Angel Beats: The Next Cycle
by GiftedRaven
Summary: The last Battlefront has disappeared, but they left traces behind. Information - at least as much as they knew. Just enough for the same old fight to resume again when Battlefront HQ is rediscovered. But when Kenny Clark joins the newest Battlefront a month after his brother, will his appearance be enough of a catalyst to knock these very different personalities off the same path?
1. Chapter 1: New Arrivals

Some people can't accept their lives, even after they're already dead. Those people pass into limbo, and a certain group - high-school aged children - come to the afterlife high school. There they can study, and go to school to live a better life. Ultimately, though, this will lead to their Obliteration. When people have no reason to stay there, they pass on. They disappear. To avoid this, certain students have banded together to fight the student body president, known as Angel, and to fight God himself. These students call themselves the Afterlife Battlefront. Their goal is to stay as alive as they can be - and to eventually obliterate Angel once and for all.

A loud pounding was making Kenny's head ache. What was going on? Where was he? They had to stop that noise. If he didn't stop the noise, his father was going to demand what it was. What was it? Kenny squeezed his eyes shut tighter than they already were. It sounded like Adam's band - but they hadn't been nearly this good. The twelve-year-old boy band had really consisted of three people. They hadn't been good enough to play anywhere real, or to have anyone who actually liked their music. Most of their music had just been them learning to play popular songs. They hadn't played anything in years. Or, rather, Kenny hadn't heard them play. Once Adam had stopped playing for the band, they'd had to find somewhere other than his house to play. He'd heard they had gotten a lot better - they had played at school dances and festivals. Once they even played at a charity event. There was no way this was them, though. He never went to any of those things - he couldn't be hearing them. Come to think of it, where was he? He wasn't in bed, the surface beneath him was too hard for that. Maybe Mrs. Thomson hadn't found him yet. He'd somehow woken up on the kitchen floor. Only, that didn't make sense either. There was a wind here, like he was outside. And if he was on his kitchen floor, it also didn't explain the music. Or the fact that nothing hurt. Maybe he was dead. He wasn't sure how he felt about that, but he figured if he were, he could find out later. He'd just rest here and enjoy the music. His eyes relaxed, but he kept them closed.  
The music stopped when the song finished. Kenny had sat up and opened his eyes before the next song started. He was indoors, but windows on one end let in the breeze he'd felt. He got shakily to his feet. A concert was going on below him. In the low light, he could just make out another person standing not too far away, and he approached her.

Rakel stood on the catwalk above the stage, looking out at the crowd of NPC's cheering for the blasting music that was pounding out of the speakers on the stage. Rakel smirked. It was a very good thing going deaf wasn't a thing here. She pushed her dark red hair out of her eyes and watched the door and the crowd, waiting for the right time to give the signal to turn on the fans. Rakel heard someone moving on the other end of the catwalk and turned to see a familiar comrade-in-arms. But he looked all wrong... he was wearing the regular school uniform and he wasn't even supposed to be up here! She'd stationed him outside with the task of keeping Angel out! Didn't he understand what would happen to the band if Angel got in here? "What the _hell_ are you doing here?" She demanded. "Why aren't you at your post?"  
"What?" Kenny asked. What post? Why did she act like she knew him? She couldn't be talking about Adam, either... That simply wasn't possible.  
"What do you mean, what? This is the _third_ time you've been late, and why the hell are you even all the way over _here_ anyway? I am pretty sure you're supposed to be stationed on the bridge!" Rakel snapped.  
Kenny shook his head. "No, you've got the wrong person," he said, simply.

Adam raced around the corner towards his post. He was late, again. Rakel was going to eat him alive. He shouldn't have stopped to talk to that girl - she was probably even an NPC and only even _talked_ because there wasn't a class going on right now. _Stupid_. How could he have risked this mission just to talk to a damn NPC? Angel was probably already to the bridge. He was screwed. At least if Angel stabbed him through the chest, Rakel might give him a break when he woke up. He tried to stop the smile that came to his face at the next thought: maybe Rakel would lecture him while he was still unconscious, and he'd get out of listening to it. He nodded to himself. That's what he'd hope for. He pulled out his gun as he ran, hoping that Angel wasn't already inside.  
"We need extra manpower on the bridge, Adam's neglected his position again." Rakel hadn't even heard him, speaking now into her radio and trying to make up for Adams blunder. "Angel will probably be over there. If he's got any brains, he'll take advantage of the mistake."  
Adam swore. He was so dead. How did Rakel know that? He'd hoped she would remain oblivious this time, or that she wouldn't know until later, at least. He was in for it big time. Angel made it across the bridge without a problem, but scrunched up his face when a bullet struck the side of his knee. "Guard skill: hand sonic." His metal blade grew without a problem as his leg started to heal. He turned around to face his attacker. Adam Clark had made it. He deflected the next bullet with the hand sonic.

Rakel shut off her communicator and looked up at Kenny again. "What if the others don't make it to the bridge in time, huh? What if Angel gets by while everyones distracted and a man short? How could you put the band in additional danger like that, Adam? And what the hell are you _wearing,_ anyway? Where's your uniform?"  
 _How the hell did she know Adam?_ Adam was _dead_. He had been dead for almost a month. Kenny shook his head. These kids probably thought it was a good idea to bring him up here and play a joke. That it would be so funny to joke about his dead brother. "Very funny," Kenny said, coldly. "I don't even know you, and you think that's such a great idea?" He turned to walk away.  
"You think this is a joke?" Rakel grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled out her Black Rose dagger. She'd duplicated it as soon as she'd learned how to create things in this world. "I should run you through with my dagger right here and now." She hissed angrily at him. "We're in the middle of an operation and you go go mouthing off stupid jokes?! Just go _die_ , Adam!"

Rage filled Kenny's face and he shoved her, punching her when she was off him. "Who the hell do you think you are, huh?" His voice cracked with a mixture of fury and sadness. He advanced on her with anger that would scare him later. How _dare_ she talk about his brother like that!  
Rakel staggered back in surprise. How _dare_ Adam punch her! He knew _exactly_ why she was so angry with him. "Who the hell do **you** think _ **you**_ are? You're sure as hell lucky we're on this catwalk and spilling your blood would frighten the NPC's or I'd stab you right here and now! What about Alex and Catherine and all the others? Do you want Angel to obliterate them?"  
"What the hell are you even talking about?" Kenny asked, furious that she wasn't even addressing the problem.  
"What is wrong with you Adam? You know _full well_ what I'm talking about! You've only been here for almost a solid goddamn month!" Rakel shouted. Then she noticed a girl on the side of the stage, hidden from NPCs by a curtain, begin to wave her hands, trying to attract Rakels attention. She realized the crowd had reached its peak almost ten seconds ago, and she was supposed to be ordering the fans on. "Oh sh*t!" She pulled out her radio and fumbled with it, ignoring Adam for a moment. "The fans, turn the fans on!"  
"I'm not Adam!" Kenny cried, right before the fans went on. "I'm Kenny and you f*cking know it!" His brain was only starting to process what she'd said.  
"Stop f*cking around! We don't have time for your stupid games!" Rakel shouted back, over the noise of the fans as the meal tickets began to fly away.  
"Whatever, asshole." Kenny stormed out.

Adam got too close to Angel this time around. He'd stupidly tried to pin him down, hoping that if he got this over with, Rakel wouldn't kill him. His eyes widened as with one fluid motion, the hand sonic sliced his gun in two, and entered his chest. "You idiot," one of the other members shouted, forming a line so that Angel couldn't get to the cafeteria.

"Adam!" Rakel shouted, running after him. When she got outside she saw Angel very close, supporting the weight of a man with his blade straight through the chest. Gosh dammit, this was all Adam's fault! Talk about cutting it close!  
She grabbed Kenny's arm, not wanting to waste time with frivolous distractions. She could stab him later. "You see was happened because of your bullsh*t, Adam? Do you have your weapons on you? Anything?" She demanded.  
"For the last time, I'm not Adam. Just stop it. Whatever you want, fine, just tell me! Just stop..." Kenny shook his head. He turned and his eyes fastened on Angel and his brother, his eyes widening. He had no idea who had been stabbed through the chest - he couldn't recognize him from the back - but someone had just gotten stabbed through the chest. "Oh my god."

Angel wished he hadn't had to do that. He should have restrained himself further. But the song had ended. The music had stopped, and they were done. The students who didn't want to stay and talk about how awesome the concert was were heading back to their dorms. He was no longer needed. He'd failed. "Guard skill: delay." He was long gone by the time their eyes registered it.  
Rakel sighed. "Talk about cutting it close." She said. "Who was it who sacrificed themselves?" She asked. "We ought to move him back to the hideout so he's not out here when he wakes up. Get him some new clothes."  
"It was Adam," one of the other fighters answered. Kenny still stood in shadow. A couple people helped lift Adam. "Guess he wanted to make up for being late."  
 _"What?_ " Rakel of course, didn't believe it. But there was Adam's face, plain as day. "But he was.. I was _just..."_ She turned back to look at Kenny, completely confused.  
"I told you so," Kenny said, but he seemed just as shocked as she was. That was his twin brother. His _dead_ twin brother. He had to be dreaming.  
This was a completely different man. A man who had _no idea_ what was going on. And she'd screamed at him. Rakel was mortified. "Oh my gosh... I'm so sorry... I thought... I'm sorry."

Kenny shook his head and walked off. He needed to think. This had to be a dream, but why was he dreaming of people he'd never met yelling at him, and his brother dying? Rakel knew it'd be better to leave him alone, but she couldn't risk he'd go to class and obliterate himself by accident. "Wait!" She called. She didn't sound angry anymore. Her worry was clear in her tone. "A... Kenny!" He'd said his name was Kenny right? Right? Oh geez.  
Kenny sighed. Why didn't he just wake up already. "What?"  
"Look I'm really sorry about all that, I lead these guys so I can come off as more abrasive than I'd like. I know you'd probably like to be left alone, but as you just saw this place isn't exactly normal and your brother will kill me if you get yourself obliterated before he wakes up."  
"How is he here?" Kenny asked. "What do you mean _wake up._ He's dead, and he just died again..." The pain was evident in his voice.  
"No, he's not... well yes he is, but..." She gave a bit of a laugh. "This is what happens when I make a fool of myself, okay? I get all tongue-tied." She sighed to steady herself. "You appeared here because you just died. Everyone here is dead. You brother, you, me, the musicians on stage there... everyone. Since we're all already dead, dying here doesn't actually do anything except hurt like hell and knock you out for an hour or two. And ruin your clothes, that's always annoying. But when I say he'll wake up, I mean exactly that... he'll just open his eyes in an hour or two and be perfectly fine."  
Kenny was stuck on one of the first concepts. "I just died..." He didn't seem that surprised, and he didn't seem to be denying it to himself.  
"Yeah. Do you remember? If not I wouldn't worry, amnesia's pretty common to those who suffered some kind of brain injury when they died."  
"I remember," Kenny said, flatly. He just hadn't been sure. "Why are we here, if we died?"  
"Because our lives were miserable and unfair. Least, that's what it seems to be. I don't know everyone elses stories, but I know enough to make that deduction." Rakel said. "You fight, or you get obliterated. That's just how it works here. That guy you saw stab your brother? That's our main enemy. We call him Angel."  
Kenny had already made a decision. "You get obliterated?"  
"Yeah. You just vanish from existence, I guess. No one really knows. It happens if you don't fight. There're all these people around who act all normal and go to class and such, but they don't have souls and we call them NPC's. You'll see them around. But if you try that, if you go to classes and clubs and be a normal student, you'll be obliterated. Only those of us who've chosen to fight ever stick around."  
Kenny nodded. "How're you going to keep me and my brother straight?"  
"Of course. I'm not going to get obliterated, and I'm not going to leave you to handle my brother alone," Kenny said, though he was mostly joking about the last bit.  
Rakel laughed. "He's been here about a month or so. He's a bit of a pest, sure, but he pulls through when it counts." She put out a hand for him to shake. "My name's Rakel. Nice to meet you."  
"Kenny, but I already told you. It's nice to meet you as well." He shook her hand. "And, er, sorry for hitting you."  
"It's fine. Sorry for being such a jerk. I swear I'm usually a lot nicer to newbies." She laughed. "Come on, let's head back and I'll show you HQ. Most of the others'll be hanging around there anyway."  
"Alright. After that I'd like to wait for my brother to wake up."  
"That'll probably be where he is anyway. That or the infirmary but its safer at base, so it'd be smarter to take him there."

Rakel took him to the Principals office. "Oh, also this door will kill you if you don't know the password. This giant hammer thing drops out and hits you out the window. I died like fifty times just trying to figure out how to open the damn thing. The password is 'There is no God, Buddha or Angel'." She walked in. "I've never tried to change it since I found out. Seems disrespectful to the last battlefront who left us the place."  
Adam had been left lying on the couch, and a clean folded shirt had been placed beside him to replace the blood soaked one with the giant hole in it he was still wearing. Catherine was leaning back against the armrest. "Hey Rakel." She grinned when she saw Kenny. "Woah, he looks just like Adam. This the guy you were arguing with on the catwalk?"  
"Yes.." Rakel rolled her eyes. "You think you can grab him a uniform?"  
"Done and done." Catherine went to a glass case that had once held books and withdrew a battlefront jacket.  
"But if there have been people before us, what happened to them? Did they just give up and get obliterated?" Kenny asked as they entered. He waved to Catherine. "My name is Kenny," He said, changing his jacket. "Adam's my twin brother."  
"Yeah, as far as we know. At any rate, by the time I got here, everyone was gone. I was first. I was here a couple months before Angel appeared, and we've been enemies ever since. I learned most of what I know from the computers in here and we all as a team kind of figured out the rest as we went."  
"Catherine." Catherine answered him. "Hope you're not as big of a handful as he is."  
"I don't think I am," Kenny said, glancing at his brother. He looked like he was about to say something, but his expression changed and he said something else instead. "But you guys had better be treating him right - or I'll have to kill you." Kenny smiled. "I'm his big brother now, I've got to protect him." Rakel laughed.  
"He ain't doin' anything the rest of us aren't." Catherine assured him. "He's just more reckless, so he gets hurt more often. But he'll be right as rain soon enough."  
"He was always reckless," Kenny admitted, sitting down by the couch. Towards the end, though, Kenny had started to wonder if that was actually his brother's personality. Was Adam himself now?  
"I'm gonna go see how the rest of the band is doing. Maybe kick a ball around or something." Catherine left the room.

"Has he told you about us?" Kenny asked Rakel.  
"What, like your lives? Not really. I'm not nosy, and I figure it's personal." Rakel shrugged, turning on the computer and typing out what she could about the day. She wanted to leave a record in case something happened to this battlefront like had happened to the last one. She wished she'd known what had happened to them all.  
Kenny nodded, and Adam pushed himself up. Kenny grinned. Adam froze. "Hey-" Kenny started. Adam stormed out of the room. Kenny quivered, not sure what to do. Why did Adam just leave like that?  
"Oh, good you're con- Hey, Adam!" Rakel grabbed the clean shirt and went after him but stopped at the door. "At least take your bloody shirt! Uh, off!" She yelled after him. Adam threw his bloody shirt back at her and continued outside. The shirt hit Rakel in the face and she gritted her teeth. "I sort of meant come take a clean one too!" She yelled. Then she sighed. "Fine. Walk around shirtless. See if I care." She shut the door and went back into the room. "Stupid Adam and his temper. Goshdammit. Can't he be a little more mature about the whole thing?"  
"Why did he storm out like that?" Kenny asked, in a whisper.  
"Oh I don't know, probably because of you." Rakel said bitterly.  
"What do you mean?" Kenny asked.  
"What do you mean 'what do I mean', dumbass? _We. Are. All. Dead._ _ **You**_ are dead. He just found out _his brother is dead_." Rakel said, like she was explaining this to someone mentally incompetent. "How would you _want_ him to take that news?"

The sun was still quite down when Adam made it outside and it was entirely deserted. All the NPCs were in their dorms, and most of the people were in various rooms about the school. Everyone was inside.  
Except no, it _wasn't_ deserted. Down the stairs, way out on the middle of the track field, Adam could see the silhouette of a girl lying on her side on the ground.  
Adam wasn't interested in having a conversation. He sat down where he was and tried to calm down. His brother was dead. He should have been there for him.

The whole time he sat there, the girl did not move. Finally, Adam was calm enough to go down to see what was up. That girl hadn't moved the entire time. "Hey, what are you doing out here?" he called, before he could really see her. The girl, who was unconscious, didn't answer. She didn't even move.

When Adam approached her, he would find yet another person he knew. But this girl did not look anything like he knew her in life. Her skin was clean and unblemished by scars, her sleeping or unconscious face had filled in from the sunken, pale look she had had before. Her clothing fit her perfectly and no ribs would be seen under her shirt, skinny though she still was. Her once lifeless, half-gone hair had regained it's natural body and her full head of hair flowed, blonde and wavy, down to her shoulders. In short, this girl who had been starving herself since before Adam had met her in life had become healthy again, with no traces of the damage inflicted by both herself and other parties.  
She had her arms curled up to her chest and her hands on her shoulders as though trying to keep warm. Her lips were slightly parted, and the girl he knew to be named Roseanne slept peacefully. She was really quite pretty when she wasn't starving herself.


	2. Chapter 2: Easy Mistakes

Adam was shocked. Poor Roseanne. His poor brother. Dammit. He gently picked her up. She looked cold, and it was a bad idea to be out here all night anyway. He'd bring her back to the principal's office.  
As Adam was carrying her up the steps, she began to awaken. She shifted her weight a little and rubbed her eyes. "What the... Where am I...?"  
"You're safe. We'll explain everything soon," Adam assured her.  
"Huh? Who are you? Put me down!" Roseanne demanded, sounding fearful.  
Adam was surprised, but not because she was afraid. She probably would have been even more afraid if she'd remembered him. Unless she assumed he was Kenny. Adam did as he was told. "I was getting you inside. You don't need to worry, it's a school," he explained.  
"A school?" She stood up and looked around. "What was I doing out in the field at a school in the middle of the night?" She frowned, seemingly talking to herself. "And how did I get here?"  
Adam debated whether to lie, but he decided against it. "You died," he said, simply.  
"I what?" Her eyes widened.  
"You died. I don't know how, but everyone here has. This is the afterlife. But we're not done fighting. We have another chance here," Adam said.  
"...This is a joke, right?" Roseanne gave a very obviously fake laugh. "Hahaha, that's a cute prank. You have a funny sense of humor." Even though it was obvious she was lying, it also wan't meant to be sarcastic. She was legitimately trying to lie to be kind. She just wasn't very good at it. "I'm going to go to bed though. I'm sure I'll remember what happened in the morning."  
"Amnesia is common among people whose head got injured when they died. I had it at first as well. Just do me a favor and don't go to class - you'll be obliterated if you do."  
"What are you talking about now?" Roseanne asked. "Obliterated?"  
"You'll disappear forever," Adam explained. "Unless you fight, you get obliterated."  
It took a long moment for Roseanne to answer. "I'm sorry, I'm sure your jokes would be very funny some other time, but I am currently too tired to appreciate them." Again, this was a lie, but a well-intentioned one. "I suppose I will see you at some other time." She turned and began walking away, on her own and back towards the school building. She had to figure out where the dorms were, and which was hers.  
Adam sighed. He'd have help her out tomorrow. She probably was really tired. "You won't have a dorm yet. You should come stay in the principal's office."  
"No, really, it's okay." She assured him. Really she wanted to get away from this creep. How could he possibly think that joke could be funny? Surely there was _somebody_ normal around she could ask to hep her! Why would she stay in the principals office, anyway? That certainly didn't make any sense.  
"You can come talk to Rakel there. She'll set you up. Please just come on."  
"I'm fine, thank you." She insisted, walking a little quicker and entering the building.  
Adam sighed. "Fine then! But I'm telling the truth, Roseanne, you'll see." He realized that he'd used her name and cursed under his breath. Roseanne just sped was creepy this man knew her name despite her not remembering seeing him before... or anyone. And this weird prank he was trying to play on her was really annoying. She headed quickly down the hall.

"You should be in bed," Angel said, his voice calm but stern. "You should go to bed immediately. It is past curfew." She would be even more tired than the rest of them. Though he supposed if she had not been listening to the loud music, she may have an easier time sleeping. He found that usually students who were calm before bed were less tired.  
Roseanne smiled. There was a person who could help her! She walked up to hi, unaware that the man who'd been following her would have issues with her talking to another student. "I'm sorry mister." She said kindly. "I awoke outside not to long ago and can't seem to remember where my dorm is. Could you please help me?"  
"Oh. You must have just died. I will assign you a dorm if you will come with me. I am the student body president here," Nikolai said, leading the way. This girl was going to follow the rules, and she was going to find peace.  
"I must have what?" Roseanne asked, stopping. She laughed then. "Oh I get it, you're friends with that boy I met back there. I'm sorry I don't find your joke very funny."  
Nikolai looked at her, looking truly confused. "It isn't a joke."  
"You can't honestly expect me to believe I've died. I mean I'm walking around and talking to you now, aren't I?"  
"Yes. We are in the after life. We are not technically alive as we cannot die again."  
"What? What do you mean we can't die again? How are we not alive? How do you expect me to believe you?" She turned to begin going down another hall, trying desperately now to find someone who wasn't nuts. This was just too weird. All her memories were gone and now these two boys were ganging up to play pranks on her and make her think she was dead...  
"Because it is true. Please come with me immediately. You must get a dorm room so that you can become a productive student here."  
"It is not a joke," Angel insisted. "We must get you a dorm so you may sleep, come." He kept walking, checking behind him to make sure she was following.  
Regardless of his stupid pranks, Roseanne still needed a room. She sighed and muttered "If you say so." But did not protest any further.  
Angel led her to his room, and left the door open as he ran his computer to assign her a room. He printed off a little slip and handed it to her. It had her room number, as well as her schedule. Roseanne smiled. "Thank you."  
Angel smiled. "You are welcome. If you have any questions, ask me. It is what I am here for, after all. Hurry to bed." Roseanne nodded and went down the hall he'd indicated.

Adam reentered the principal's office. "There's another new girl... She has amnesia, and, well. I was the only one out there. She's going to the dorms."  
Rakel stood up, going pale. "Oh crap."  
"We can probably get her tomorrow morning, she seemed really tired," Adam said.  
"And what happens if she meets Angel in the halls?" Rakel pointed out.  
"I don't know," Adam admitted.  
Rakel sighed. "Do you know which way she went?"  
"Towards the girl's dorms," Adam answered. Rakel nodded her thanks and dashed down the hall. Angel though, had predicted her movement. The moment Roseanne had left in the right direction, he had left his room again to head Rakel off.  
Rakel had no patience for being held up. "Move. I'm finding the girl."  
"I can't let you do that." Angel answered. "Guard Skill: Hand Sonic." Rakel gritted her teeth and drew her own blade. She knew from experience hand-to-hand combatants generally lasted longer against Angel than guns. Angel met her blade with his, stabbing at her. He couldn't let her ruin another's chances. Rakel blocked Angel's stabbing motion with her own blade and forced the knife away with her own, backing up a step in a defensive position. She wouldn't let Angel get this girl. But she'd really rather not be stabbed today either. She hoped she could hold Angel off long enough for some sort of backup to come. Angel's eyes narrowed. "Guard Skill: Delay." He slashed at Rakel's side.  
Rakel felt the knife enter her side and gasped in pain. She saw Angel and didn't think, wanting to act before he moved again. She stabbed at the dead center of his chest. Angel's blade was too far into her to move quickly enough, even with her delayed vision. He frowned as he passed out.  
Another wave of pain overwhelmed her as the hand sonic disappeared and left the wound it had created in her side. Blood began to flow. sh*t, this was fatal wasn't it? She didn't want to pass out... Especially not anywhere near Angel. She staggered back towards the principals office, clutching her side as the blood slipped through her fingers.  
Kenny met Rakel in the hall before she'd gone more than a dozen meters. "Oh my god, what happened?" He asked.  
"Tried to... find the new girl before Angel got her... Angel stopped me." She gasped in pain and slumped against a wall. "Angel's out for an hour or two. Got him through the heart. Still, he won't be the only one if I- _God_ that _hurts_ \- can't... deal with this."  
"Should we go back to the principal's office?" Kenny asked.  
"Yeah... Yeah we should." She tried to pull herself up and gave another loud cry of pain from stretching her side, but she managed it. She already looked pretty pale as she continued to walk in that direction.  
Kenny tried to help support her. "Just breathe." He walked to the principal's office and opened the door, forgetting to say the password first.  
"No, wait, don't!" Rakel shouted, but it was too late. The giant hammer that had been there since she'd first shown up dropped from wherever it had been rigged too, Rakel wasn't sure, and hit them out the window. "You f*cking idiot!" She shouted as she hit the ground, knowing the impact would be fatal. All that effort to not die and ESPECIALLY not where Angel could find her, and dumbass Kenny had to blow it. That was her last thought before she hit the ground and lost consciousness.


	3. Chapter 3 & 4: Sob Stories & Old News

**Author's Note: As an apology for making you wait more than 2 weeks instead of the usual 1, I'm publishing Chapters 3 and 4 together! Hope you enjoy!**

It was very early in the morning when Rakel awoke with a shout "After all that _f*cking work,_ Kenny!" She looked around, alarmed, only to see a familiar brown haired freckled face staring back at her. She sighed in relief. "Alex! So glad to see a familiar face." She smiled at the fellow member of battlefront.

"The new boy launched you both?" He asked quietly.

"Yeah," Rakel sighed. "Here I am just having to fought Angel _on my own_ trying to find some other new girl Adam found - it was lucky, I engaged Angel in a knife fight and technically he got me first, I got a bad wound to the side that would've eventually killed me, except now he couldn't move his arm out quick enough to stop my stabbing him in the chest - but as Angel died first he'd wake up first and I didn't want to be dead anywhere he could find me, so I start to struggle my way back to battlefront headquarters, trying desperately not to collapse, and halfway there Kenny finds me and starts to help me walk back, which was sweet of him. Then we get to the door, and I'm thinking this is a miracle, we're _actually gonna make it.._. and then dumbass opens the door without giving it the password. Thanks for undoing all that work." She sighed, looking around. "Still, looks like there was no harm done, thank goodness. Is Kenny okay?"

"Yeah. He still hasn't woken up."

"Ok, that's good." Rakel smiled. "He's with us now, then? I should talk to him... and find whoever Adam was talking about. Thanks for being here when I woke up so I didn't have a heart attack."

"Of course, Rakel. Kenny and Adam are both probably still sleeping at HQ."

"Alright. See you later Alex." She got out of the bed and headed towards HQ. She didn't want to wake them, so she went on her computer until somebody woke up.

Adam stretched himself awake moments later, sitting up without actually opening his eyes. He should just go back to sleep, that's what he should do."Morning Adam." Rakel said without looking up from the computer."Nice to see you're up."

"Yeah, I saw you got smashed last night, you alright?" Adam asked, without looking at her.

"I'm ok. Your idiot brother forgot I explicitly told him there was a password on the door, that's all." Rakel shrugged.

"Don't call him an idiot," Adam snapped at her.

"I'll call anyone I damn well please an idiot. Don't do stupid sh*t and I won't call you an idiot." am seemed to realize it was pointless to argue, so she pressed on. "Speaking of newbs we met last night…"

"Roseanne," Adam guessed. "We'll have to find her."

Rakel nodded. "I'm going to ask Kenny to look for her as well. She's probably in a class right now, so just pop your heads in and look for her. One single class won't kill her, just make sure you catch her when she leaves so the girl doesn't get herself obliterated on her first day."

"We'll find her," Adam agreed, heading out to start searching. Rakel then went to go find Kenny to ask him to start looking as well.

Kenny had just finished changing into their altered uniform when Rakel came in. "Hey, uh. I'm really sorry. I forgot about the password..."

"After all that bloody effort to get back to the room too." Rakel sighed. "Anyway, your brother found another new kid when he was out last night but she refused to believe him. We have to find out which class she's in before she obliterates herself."

"Al..right? What am I looking for?" Kenny asked.

"You know, he didn't actually give me a description, you'll have to ask him. He did say her name was Roseanne, though."

"What?" Kenny asked in disbelief.

"What what? He said he found a girl named Roseanne outside last night. That's all I know. Look if you can't help I'll ask someone else."

"No, no, I'll help. Thank you." Kenny ran from the room to start searching. What the hell had happened to Roseanne?

Adam was the first to find her. She was sitting in an English class; her favourite subject. Despite that, she looked a little lost, as she'd missed a year or material while Adam had had her. "Hey, Roseanne," Adam hissed from the doorway. "Let's go."

She looked back. Ugh, it was that creepy guy from last night. "I'm _in the middle of a class_!" She hissed back. She resumed paying attention to the teacher.

"Exactly, you're in class," Adam agreed. "So let's go."

"I don't skip class!" Then she bit her lip. Did she...? She had the vaguest of memories... maybe it was normal for her to skip class? This whole scene did seem familiar... Oh, she wasn't sure. Anyway, she certainly wasn't skipping with this creepy guy.

"Sure you do, come on, none of the other kids here are even real people," Adam said.

"They're not - _what?"_

"They're NPCs, they just stay here doing what they're told forever."

"Oh, is that what you think of other people?" Roseanne said coldly. Oh well wasn't that attitude familiar?

"No, that's what I think of those people - who aren't really people," Adam replied. "Come on, don't you find it a little weird that you don't remember anything except waking up here with the school uniform on? There are tons of us who'll verify what I'm telling you, even Angel, sort of."

Roseanne scowled at him. "Five minutes. I'm not skipping class for you." She raised her hand and asked the teacher if she could go to the washroom. The teacher allowed it and she left the room.

"Thanks," Adam said, grinning. "We'll have the best five minutes." He started heading back to the principal's office. Kenny finally came across them then.

"Roseanne," he cried happily and threw his arms around her.

Roseanne shoved the creepy kid off her. "Get off me! Is this another one of your pranks?" She backed up. "Look, it wasn't funny last night and I tried to be nice, but if you're going to stalk me through the school then I'm afraid I cannot retain my politeness with you or your... twin brother?"

"What pranks?" Kenny asked, frowning.

Adam rolled his eyes. "We're not pulling any pranks."

"Then what do you call that stunt you and your friend were trying to pull last night? And furthermore, your attitude towards other people is extraordinarily disrespectful. You think you can order me around, insult my classmates in front of me, and then believe I would be willing to break the school rules for you? I wouldn't spend one single minute with someone as rude and irresponsible as you and I would greatly appreciate it if you stopped following me around. I've had quite enough of your sort of personality to last me a lifetime. I'm not keen on meeting another one. Good day to you, sirs." She turned to try to go back into class.

"Another one?" Kenny asked. It seemed like Roseanne hadn't recognized them, so what did she mean 'another one'?

Roseanne stopped. She frowned. Where _had_ 'another one' come from? Had she met someone like him before? "I... I don't really know where that came from... a subconscious memory, I guess...?"

"Well... you know how we both knew your name?" Adam asked. "Yeah, I'm not 'another one'." He bumped her shoulder playfully.

"It's an understatement to say you never really liked him," Kenny admitted. "But we were friends..."

"Don't touch me!" She snapped, and her hand wet up to hit him before she stopped. Even she didn't seem to understand that sudden outburst. Not necessarily that she didn't want to be touched, but she'd been about to _hit_ him? She wasn't a violent person and that reaction scared her. "I'm going back to class," she said worriedly, not wanting to converse with these two any longer before she did something she'd regret.

Adam scowled. "Fine then, get yourself obliterated."

Kenny glared at him and followed her. "I'm really sorry about him. He's kind of a jerk," he said, keeping his distance to try to avoid setting her off.

"Why are you following me?" She demanded. Why did these people keep stalking her!?

"I just wanted to apologize," Kenny said.

Rosanna stopped and raised her eyebrows. "Apologize?"

"Yeah... I guess you don't remember anything, but I haven't been doing too great a job of keeping my brother away from you," Kenny said. "My name's Kenny, by the way."

"Why would I expect you to control him?" Roseanne asked. "You don't have anything to apologize for. It's nice to meet you, though. I shouldn't have lost my temper back there..."

"It's fine... And not control him, just help you keep your distance. Just trust me, it's important." Kenny smiled.

"Oh... Well... we've been standing out here awhile." She laughed nervously. "I am supposed to be in english class."

"Alright, but hey, uh. Do you think we could hang out after classes are out?"

"I guess that would be okay?" She was still uneasy about this guy because the other one was such a jerk. How was she supposed to tell them apart? He said he was trying to 'help her keep her distance' from the other guy, but that hadn't really helped last night, had it? "Sure."

"I'll see you, then," Kenny said. "And, uh. I'll call you Laney, so you know it's me later." It hadn't been too much of a problem when Adam had been doing drugs, but now he looked healthy.

"Ok. I'll probably be in the cafeteria or something... if I can find it. I don't remember the school layout at all." She replied.

"We were new students. You probably wouldn't remember much even if you had your memories. Uh, you'll probably be able to find it at lunch though? I hope. Just sort of follow the crowd."

"Alright, I'll do that. Thank you." Roseanne smiled. "I'll see you at lunch, then."

"See you there." Kenny waved and turned to 'head back to class'. Really he went to the principal's office.

Rakel was still in there on the computer. She was again going through the logs of the previous people to use this hideout, trying to find anything she missed. She'd read over all of these at least three times, but she never found anything useful. Whatever had caused them all to leave, the incident was dramatic enough that they'd stopped taking logs of the events at the end of each day."Hey, Rakel," Kenny greeted, with a sigh.

"Oh hey Kenny." She looked up from the computer. "I don't know why I continue to bother doing this, I practically have some of these logs memorized." She said with a sigh. "How'd it go with Roseanne?"

"I managed to undo most of the damage my brother did, but there's no other progress, really," Kenny answered.

"Damage?" Rakel sighed. "What'd that dumbass do now?"

"He was very blunt, and she has no memory of anything. It would have been honestly worse if she had, to say the two of them didn't get along would be an understatement," Kenny answered. "She doesn't believe him, and she's now convinced he's stalking her."

Rakel facepalmed. "What an idiot. I'll talk to him. For now I can ask someone else to keep an eye on her if it's needed."

"She's going to meet me for lunch. I figured it was best to let her do what she thought she should until either her memories come back or she believes that we're all dead." Even though Kenny had only been told the night before, there wasn't a waver in his voice.

"Just don't let her get too comfortable. Going to classes is the most dangerous thing you can do here. Be careful. But you're right in not breaking the news too bluntly. Even if she believes you, most people don't take the news as well as you are."

"Yeah, well, that's why I don't get why my brother's too upset. If I'm not dead, it means I have to go home," Kenny said. "She'll have it a lot harder, though. I just hope we can convince her before she disappears."

"Was your home life really that bad?" Rakel asked.

Kenny looked at her. "My home life is what killed me."

"Ouch" Rakel winced sympathetically. "Parents?"

"My dad," Kenny answered. "He's what killed Adam too, by extension."

Rakel nodded. "I didn't have a dad. He didn't die or anything. He just left when I was eleven because he decided he didn't want to deal with my cheating whore of a mother. His words, not mine."

"I didn't have a mom," Kenny said. "So I guess we're a set, huh?"

Rakel grinned. "Yeah I suppose we are."

"She died, but she was going to leave anyway. Adam used to say she'd have taken us with her, but I don't think she really cared," Kenny confessed.

"Well, my dad sure didn't give enough of a damn to try to find out what happened to me after he left. Just took the house and half the savings after my mom had lost everything in the scandal."

Kenny nodded. "Sometimes I wonder if there's such a thing as a good parent," he said, shaking his head.

"My mother was a good parent. Stupid, but she meant well. She at least, cared what happened to me. About the only person who did, mind."

Kenny nodded. "I guess that's better than nothing. Roseanne's parents were supposedly pretty good, but she still got pretty messed up."

"There's no one who arrives here who _isn't_ messed up, Kenny. Some are just better at hiding it than others."

Kenny grinned. "Yeah." He hesitated. "Do you think Angel is really an angel?"

"No, that's just what they call him. I'm not entirely sure what Angel is."

"Why do you think he tries to stop us?"

"Don't know. Far's I an tell, it's always been like this. The ultra-powerful Angel, trying to stop the Battlefront from breaking the rules and trying to get them obliterated."

"Well, what else could he be?" Kenny asked.

"I don't know, but the notes here say the name isn't literal. Apparently the previous Angel was a girl so it could just have been an actual name."

"That's weird. I wonder what he knows that would make him fight against us."

"Well whatever it is fighting against him is our only option. He's trying to get us obliterated, and that alone is enough."

Kenny nodded. "Agreed..." Then he thought of something else. "So last night when I appeared, what was going on?"

"Oh that? That was operation Tornado. it's a thing we do, we put on a concert and then during the concert we blow away eveyones meal tickets with fans."

"What? Why?" Kenny asked, looking slightly appalled.

"Because that's what we do to not get obliterated? We raise hell. The NPC's hardly care, and we don't hurt them in any way. We actualy got the idea from the logs from the last group, apparently they had a girl who sang anyway who headed some band called Girls Dead Monster here that did the concerts."

Kenny shook his head. "Alright. It's pretty awesome, I'll give you that."

"Thank you. Anyway, Angels always trying to stop it, which is why we've got to set up a perimeter and such. Generally until we do something, Angel leaves us alone. But once we beak a school rule, that's when we have to fight him."

"Well, at least he's not completely unreasonable," Kenny said.

"Yeah, we have that."

Kenny headed to the cafeteria when classes got out to meet Roseanne. Roseanne was using her designated meal tickets to buy lunch when she saw Kenny approaching. She put her timetable on her food tray, took her portions and sat down at the table nervously, sincerely hoping that wasn't her stalker. Kenny grinned. "Hey, Laney. You should be fine, I don't think Adam comes in here during actual lunch."

Roseanne grinned. "Hi Kenny. How was class?"

"Pretty boring, except for art. Yours?"

"Confusing." She frowned. "I don't understand what any of my teachers are saying. It's frustrating. I feel stupid."

"You're probably pretty behind, but it's not because you're stupid. You missed a lot of school," Kenny told her.

"I did? Why?" Roseanne asked him. "And how do you know so much more about me than I do?"

"Well, I have memories," Kenny pointed out, neglecting her other question.

"Yeah, why don't I?"

"How the hell would I know?" Kenny asked. "I didn't see you for months, and then you show up with no memories."

"I don't know, I just hoped someone else might know if I'd get them back." She sighed.

"Um, we could ask Rakel, but other than that..."  
"Who's Rakel?" She asked curiously.

"One of my friends," Kenny answered. "She's a lot smarter than I am."

"You think she'd know?" Roseanne asked hopefully. "I wouldn't mind asking..."

"I don't know," Kenny admitted, "but no harm asking, right?"

"Sure. Where does she hang out at lunch?" Roseanne got up, resolved to ask the girl.

"Um. We'll have to look around. It depends on the day, honestly. Do you wanna finish eating first?"

"Nah, not that hungry." She went to throw the food away, but then stopped and frowned, just looking down at what she'd been eating.

"Uh, Roseanne...? I really think you should eat it..." Kenny said quietly.

"Yeah..." She spoke slowly. "Yeah, maybe you're right." She sat back down and took another bite, chewing her food thoughtfully.

Kenny breathed in what could only be relief. "Anyway, the food is pretty good."

"Yeah, it is." Roseanne agreed. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Er. It's nothing, sorry. Really I shouldn't worry so much."

"Really, what is it?" Roseanne pressed. "Is there something else about me you know that I don't?" She looked down at her food again, remembering the odd feeling in her stomach when she tried to throw it away.

"It just makes me nervous when you don't eat, but I'd wager there's a lot about you I know that you don't. We were best friends..."

"Were we?" Roseanne looked surprised, and was watching him more closely, trying to remember. "That must have been confusing."

"Well, my brother was in a lot worse condition then. It was a lot easier to tell us apart."

"Why's that?" She asked. Any small bit of information would be wonderful right now.

Kenny sighed. "He used to do drugs," he admitted. "That's actually why you started to avoid him - he got you hooked too. He... Was into a lot of bad stuff then, parties and all kinds of illegal things, and he pulled you in and wouldn't let you out again. I figured it out, and got you some help."

Her eyes widened in shock. She couldn't remember any of it... couldn't even iagine being in that sort of crowd. And yet.. "Is that why I'm so behind in school?"

Kenny nodded. "Yeah. But there was one good thing that came from it - you got help for your anorexia, too." He was whispering now.

"Anorexia?" She suddenly understood why throwing away food made her feel so odd, and why Kenny had been so nervous. Nope, she wasn't doing that again, no way. She knew what anorexia was, and it sounded absolutely miserable.

"Yeah, it was basically the only problem you had before my brother got involved. You were top of the class before that, so I know you're not stupid."

"Geeze. Maybe it's better I don't remember any of this stuff." She laughed.

"Maybe," Kenny agreed. "We can go whenever you're ready."

She finished eating all of her food and stood up. "Alright, let's go!"

Kenny grinned and hurried off. He'd only ever found anyone consistently in the principal's office, so he headed there. On the way out of the lunch room, they passed Angel, sitting alone at his usual table. Kenny tensed as he remembered the sight of that boy stabbing his brother straight through the night before, but Angel didn't bother them. They weren't doing anything wrong. Students were free to spend their lunch hour as they wished, and he'd seen them eating, so they weren't damaging themselves.

Roseanne followed. "The principals office?" She frowned, remembering Adam that first night.

"Yeah, I figured it was as good a place as any to look," Kenny agreed. He bit his lip, then said the code, remembering all too clearly the last time he got smashed through funner window. "There is no God, Buddha, or Angel." He opened the door, not sure how he'd explain that one to Roseanne.

Roseanne threw him a look but followed him into the office.

Rakel was sitting at the desk. "Oh hey Kenny!" She waved with a grin, which got wider when she saw Roseanne. "Oh you brought Roseanne?"

"I don't get it, where's the principal?" Roseanne asked, confused as to why this teenager was sitting at the principals desk.

"And you didn't tell her anything." Rakel put her hand to her temple. "Make me do all the work much?" She said in good humour.

"I told her plenty, just nothing you could," Kenny snapped. "Though that's a good question, actually. Where _is_ the principal?"

Rakel laughed. "Honestly? I have no clue. I think he poofs in and out of existence or something, I've only seen him at assemblies."

"Huh?" Roseanne frowned. People didn't just poof in and out of existence.

"This is Rakel, Roseanne," Kenny added. "To be honest, I was only here a couple hours longer than you." That was strange, come to think of it.

"Nice to meet you." Roseanne told her.

"Nice to meet you too. Adam said you had amnesia?"

She frowned, not liking that this girl was apparently friends with the guy stalking her too. "Yeah, Kenny said you might know something about that."

"There's been a fair few here. Head trauma causes it, we think. Anyway, it should come back eventually. Oh but don't stick to any routines. People think it'll help but it actually makes things much worse. It's better to do as many different things as possible. Don't be repetitive. If you follow that advice your memory will be triggered and come back eventually." Most of that was lies, but it was Rakels way of making sure Roseanne wouldn't go to class every day, without telling her the reason why.

"She'd like to avoid my brother as much as possible," Kenny said. "I don't think that will surprise him too much."

"Oh. Yeah I get it, Adam can be a dick sometimes." Rakel agreed.

"He's much better than he was," Kenny said, for the sake of both girls.

Rakel shrugged. "Doesn't mean he's not a dick. But he pulls through when it counts." Kenny nodded.

"You're not talking about me, are you?" Alex asked, grinning, as he entered the room.

"Oh totally Alex." Rakel joked sarcastically. "We're totally talking about you."

That was when Alex noticed Roseanne. "Well it's nice to meet you." He offered a hand. "Alex."

"Roseanne." She shook his hand. "Pleasure to meet you too."

"We got a lot and of new kids last night, didn't we? Wonder what happened."

"That is a good question. I've always kinda wondered about the timing of people showing up here."

"I just assumed they showed up when they died," Alex said, shrugging.

Kenny grimaced. Of course.

Rakel groaned. "Alex!"

Roseanne scowled and left the room.

"Great!" Rakel snapped when Roseanne slammed the door. "We were _finally_ making a little _progress_ with her, and you had to go and ruin it. Thanks."

"Well F*ck, I didn't know she didn't know," Alex objected.

"Don't you hear people talk? She's only been the main thing me and the twins have been working on since last night!"

Kenny hurried after her.

Roseanne didn't even look back at him, walking back to the cafeteria. "I'm really sorry, I don't know what all this is about," Kenny said. Roseanne ignored him, and the bell rang at that moment. Then she had to stop, fumbling for her schedule and trying to remember what her next class was. Kenny sighed. "I'll see you later, then." Roseanne still didn't answer, still trying to find her timetable, not realizing she'd left it at her lunch table.

That was when Angel located them. "I believe you left this in the cafeteria," he said, holding out the timetable for Roseanne.

Rosenne lit up. "Oh thank you so much. I was just looking for that." She smiled at him.

"My pleasure," Angel answered.

"Roseanne, what's your next class?" Kenny asked, trying to pull her away from Angel.

Roseanne resented him trying to yank her away. "What's your problem?" She snapped. "I have Pre-Calculus next. Why do you care?"

"Because I'm your friend," Kenny said, quietly.

"Well I would appreciate it if you people would drop this _ridiculous_ prank." She turned to go to class. She knew she'd feel bad about her rudeness later, but right now she didn't care.

"Is he bothering you?" Angel asked, before Kenny could speak.

"They're still trying to keep up this ridiculous prank, trying to convince me I'm dead. I tried to be nice at first, but just because I have amnesia doesn't mean I'll believe anything and I'm sick of these people trying to mess with my head because they think it's funny!"

Angel gave a small smile. "I'm sorry, miss, but it's not a joke, as difficult as it is to believe."

At least Angel wasn't any better at it.

Roseanne threw him a dirty look. "Prove it then." She challenged, getting thoroughly sick of these people. Her voice rose louder. "if it's so true, then prove it!"

Angel looked almost sad for a moment, but it quickly disappeared. "Very well. Guard skill: hand sonic." As the blade appeared, Kenny tried to pull on Roseanne again, but it wasn't fast enough. The weapon went right through the second person Kenny cared about in twenty four hours. sh*t.

That was when the NPCs started wailing. Angel looked perplexed. "I forgot that we should have done this elsewhere. We must take her to the infirmary." The blade disappeared.

Roseanne gave a little gasp. It was the most painful thing she'd ever felt in her life. Her vision was getting blurry. She... she was dying. _He'd killed her!_ That as her last thought before the world went black.


	4. Chapter 5: A Mysterious Boy

"You stay away from her," Kenny said, glaring at Angel. "Help! Someone help over here!"  
Catherine heard his cries and came over to assist. "Sh*t, what happened to no fighting in front of the NPCs? Dude." Catherine shook her head, completely ignoring Angel. "Alright, let's get her into the principals office and wait for her to wake up."  
"She requested I prove she was dead. I suppose I could have requested we go somewhere else." Angel sighed. He had messed up. Seeing that they were not going to let him alter their course, he set about calming the students and getting them to class. It was not easy, since he'd been the one doing the stabbing.

Kenny helped carry Roseanne all the way there. "What the _hell_ happened?" Rakel asked in shock, seeing them carry in a bloody and unconscious Roseanne.  
"She told Angel to prove she was dead," Kenny said. "So he stabbed her."  
Rakel facepalmed. "That's pretty predictable." She sighed. "Aright, I guess there's not much to do for her but wait until she wakes up. Least Angel's solved our problem for us."  
"Yeah, at least there's that," Kenny muttered.

"Anyone know what Adam does with his lunch hours? He should probably be told." Rakel sighed, getting up from her desk.  
"He really doesn't need to be told," Kenny said. "She really doesn't want to see him around."  
"Be that as it may, he was really concerned and I think he has a right to be told."  
"He doesn't have a right to be concerned," Kenny snapped. His old anger at his brother returned, and he shook his head.  
"Why do you say that?" Rakel frowned.  
"He almost put her here himself," Kenny hissed, and turned away.  
"You two knew her in life?" Rakel was shocked. No one who'd ever shown up here had ever known each other in life before. Brothers showing up was weird enough, but she supposed made sense. But Roseanne wasn't related to them.  
"Yes," Kenny said, shortly. "Speaks volumes how much it sucked down there all three of us ended up here, huh?"  
"You guys are the first people who already knew each other to show up. That's really weird. I knew a lot of people who I'd be expecting to be here, but I've never seen them. Yet you guys all end up here."  
Kenny shrugged. "Maybe we're just lucky," he suggested, though he was clearly being sarcastic.  
Rakel shrugged. "Maybe if God exists he thinks you all need to see each other for some reason. I dunno. I know I wouldn't exactly be happy if anyone who I knew showed up either. Bastards, all of 'em."  
"Maybe," Kenny said, sighing.  
"At any rate, I'm still gonna tell him." She left the room to go look for the other twin. Kenny was somewhat glad.

Adam had taken up residence in the field while eating, and had laid down for a nap after that. Rakel eventually found him. "Don't you get run over by the track team out here?"  
"I dunno, I haven't yet," Adam answered. "But I don't think there's track this period. And anyway, don't they like... Have a track?"  
"I dunno, maybe." Rakel laughed, sitting next to him. "Doesn't Angel give you sh*t out here, though? It's class time. I'm surprised you havent been stabbed."  
"I guess there's something bigger going on," Adam answered, shrugging.  
"Oh there is today, I just assumed you did this a lot." Rakel sat down next to him, sighing. "Roseanne demanded to Angels face that he prove she was dead. Do I even need to explain what happened after that?"  
"Holy crap, seriously? I mean, at least she'll believe us now, but damn."  
"Yup. Kenny and Cath took her back to the principals office so she's in there until she wakes up. Angels got his hands full dealing with hysterical NPCs."  
"He did it in front of NPCs?" Adam asked, eyes wide.  
"Yes, I passed the commotion on the way down. He did it right in the middle of the hallways by the cafeteria."  
"Holy sh*t, that's crazy." Adam shook his head.

Meanwhile, Angel noticed he wasn't the only one calming people down. One of the NPCs, a small skinny boy with black hair, was helping him. He was convincing kids it had been a magic trick, and soon they'd see that girl wandering around the halls good as new. It was all just an illusion. The boy who'd done it wouldn't have stuck around if it was real.  
Angel frowned. That was not normal behavior. Nevertheless, it was clever, and helpful. "Thank you," he told the boy as things started to settle down.  
"You're welcome." The boy answered quietly. He seemed shy, not quiet meeting Angel's eyes.  
"You handled that much better than anyone else," Angel complimented.  
"Well it's not as though that doesn't happen where we can't see it every night and outside every concert." The boy shrugged. "I'm used to it." He turned to walk off.  
"What?" Angel questioned. How did he know about that? He didn't answer, just kept walking. He had a social studies class next. "Hey, what's your name?" Angel asked.  
He looked back. "Josh. How about you?"  
"Nikolai," Angel answered, smiling.  
Josh smiled. "Well, it's nice to meet you Nikolai. I'll see you in class."  
Angel nodded. "Yeah, see you."

Rakel laughed and changed the subject. "So you knew Roseanne when you were alive, then?"  
"Yeah, I did. Did Kenny tell you?" Adam asked, looking rather sad.  
"Yes. Your brother sees pretty bitter."  
"Yeah, I don't blame him. I was an asshole," Adam said.  
"He didn't want me to tell you what happened to Roseanne."  
"Really? I guess that makes sense... I'd just hoped that with me dying and all, he'd get over it a bit." Adam laid back again.  
"Maybe you should talk to him."  
"I guess," Adam said, though it sounded like he had no intention to do so.  
"Or don't. Be bitter at each other forever. No sweat off my back." Rakel shrugged, not wanting to be a counselor for someones family bullsh*t.  
"I'm not bitter," Adam snapped.  
"Then why're you avoiding the problem?" Rakel sighed. "Whatever. Like I said, no sweat off my back."  
"You said they were in the principal's office?"  
"Yup. That's where Kenny dropped off Roseanne anyway, dunno if he's still in there."  
"Alright." Adam got up and headed that way. Rakel smiled and continued to lay there on her own, staring up at the sky. It was nice out here.

Kenny was still there when Adam came in, and Adam bit his lip. "I know what I did was wrong, and I'm sorry," he said. "I wasn't in my right mind..." His brother ignored him, and Adam sat down to wait for Roseanne to wake up.


	5. Chapter 6: Operation Fire Storm

It took quiet a while, but when she finally awoke it was abrupt. She jerked up into a sitting position and gasped for air. "Hey, Rosey," Adam greeted. "You should probably change your clothes." He put a battlefront uniform next to her.  
"My clothes?" She looked down and her eyes widened. She was still wearing the bloody uniform with the giant hole in it. "But how is that possible...?"  
"Well, since you're dead, you can't really die again," Adam said.  
Roseanne couldn't not believe him this time. "I'm... I really am... dead?" She looked down at the hole in he shirt over her perfectly unblemished chest. Her eyes were filling up with tears.  
"We all are," Adam said, gently. "But we're still here, we'll make it right."  
"I don't even know why I'm crying." She said after a moment, shaking her head. It didn't stop the tears from falling. "It's not like I remember anything I did when I was alive. For all I know, I died doing something great." She sniffed.  
"Does it matter?" Kenny asked. Both boys doubted that. She wouldn't be here if she had.  
"To me it does... but I just feel like... no matter what i accomplished, I could've done so much more with it, couldn't I?" She sniffed.  
"Yeah, I know what you mean," Adam agreed. Kenny came over and hesitantly took her hand. She held his hand and sat quietly between the two brothers, grateful for their comfort.  
"It's not the same, but we'll change things here. We'll have our time," Kenny said.  
Roseanne nodded. "How do we do that?"  
"Keep fighting Angel," Adam answered. "We'll figure the rest out soon."  
"Who is Angel?" She asked. "And why are we fighting her?"  
"He's the guy who stabbed you," Adam answered. "And me, last night. A lot of us, at some point. He tries to get us all obliterated."  
"What's 'obliterated' mean?" Roseanne asked. "Like, what does it mean here, I guess."  
"You disappear if you don't break the rules. Anyone who goes to classes and listens to Angel just disappears. We don't know if they go somewhere, or if they just stop existing."  
Roseanne shuddered. "That's terrifying." Something struck her. "Where'd Rakel go?" Rakel's desk was empty.  
"She's outside, wanted to sit in the sun."  
"Oh ok. But what about Angel? Wouldn't he hurt her?"  
"He would, but she's not causing any problems."  
"But she's still breaking the rules, isn't she? It's class time."

Angel had finally gotten the alert about a student laying in the field. "What are you doing out here?" He called to her.  
"Absolutely nothing. Don't you have classes too? Go away." Rakel told him. She didn't make an effort to move, but she was pretty sure she'd have too. "I ain't disrupting anything."  
"Oh, it's you. It's my job to make sure students follow the rules. Occasionally it excuses me from them. You should be in class." He made no move to attack her. It was true she wasn't causing problems. It was just her out here.  
Rakel smirked. "Angel, you and I both know I'm not going to class. Unless you're gonna make me fight you over it, leave me alone. I'm just laying here."  
Angel sighed. "Do try to keep it that way."  
Rakel laughed. "Oh, you know me better than that."  
"That I do, but it won't stop me from trying. At least you could leave the other students alone." Angel shook his head.  
"So could you."  
"I'm not interfering with their education," Angel said.  
"Education, schmeducation. _We're dead!_ You're the one trying to make them vanish from existence." She rolled over so she was turned away from him. "Just go away and leave me alone for a bit."  
"That doesn't mean we can't still live like we were supposed to," Angel protested.  
"No, but it doesn't mean we gotta, either. Look, you annoying me isn't gonna make me go to class, you know."  
"Why are you so stubborn?" Angel stormed away, going back to class after a short patrol.  
Rakel chuckled. "'Cause that's what keeps me goin'." She stuck her tongue out at his back and then resumed watching the clouds, in much higher spirits now that she'd successfully annoyed Angel.

The next day, Rakel called the entire battlefront to the principals office. "Alright guys, we've got a new plan, one that Angel doesn't know about yet. This should be fun. Oh, Cath hit the lights."  
The lights went down and The laptops alongside the room turned on. The screen Rakel had brought down behind her lit up bright blue  
"Wow," Roseanne commented. "High tech."  
Kenny blinked. "Yeah, nice," he agreed.  
Adam leaned back on the couch. "What's this one gonna be called?"  
Rakel laughed. "Of course you have to ask about the cool names. I don't know yet. You're the expert at that stuff. You come up with one. We'll put it on the file so we have one for next time." She clicked a button on some remote she was holding, and the large blue screen switched to a picture of a map of the school in 3D. "Alright, so here's the plan. First off, we need someone to pull the fire alarm. That's the easiest step. When it goes, the NPCs and Angel will file out of the school. We follow, but stick to classes by the doors. I want him to see that we're outside and think there's actually a fire. Furthermore, this is the opportunity to get into position. There's going to be two people at each door, so everyone grab a partner. We want to be as spread out over the school as possible, because once all the students are outside we move in. A fire drill takes at least twenty minutes, maybe longer. Angel seems to love forcing us into classes, so I say, let's take out the classes." She smirked. "We destroy everything worth using without alerting Angel to what's going on inside. Speed is key here, we want to hit as many classes as possible before either the students come back inside, or Angel figures out what we're doing. Once that happens, we all meet up and get back outside. He wont attack us in the crowds, and we file in with the students like nothing happened."  
Adam grinned. "Operation fire storm."  
"Won't Angel figure it out if he sees us go back inside?" Kenny asked.  
" _If_ he sees us go back inside. There's only one of him, whichever group sees him is just gonna have to watch him."  
"Uh, Rakel, didn't you say the logs said-"  
"We have been here like a year with no evidence that ability exists, I'm going to assume he doesn't have it until I see evidence otherwise." Rakel cut her off sternly. "Besides, you'd think something like that would be useful during operation tornado."  
"What did the logs say?" Kenny questioned, curious.  
Rakel sighed. She'd been _trying_ to keep this under wraps, so as not to freak out her teammates, but Catherine just had to go and blow it. "According to the logs, the previous Angel had a guard skill called Harmonics. It's only mentioned once, and there were drawbacks, so she never used it again, but it was certainly there at one point." She sighed. "There's a slight possibility Angel may be able to multiply himself."  
"What?" Kenny asked, looking worried. "That's a big deal. We don't even know?"  
"Like I said, he's never displayed the ability as long as anyone's been here, and it's only mentioned in the log of the previous battlefront to have been used once. There were some major drawbacks, so the previous Angel never used the ability after that. It's unknown whether or not she dismantled it or it's still there, so he might have it he might not. But he's never, ever used it, so until he does I'm not worried about it."

Kenny nodded. "We might be able to check it out sometime, but anyway, I'll take Roseanne in my group," His brother scowled.  
Rakel shook her head. "Your both newbs, and this is the first mission for both of you. You don't even know the school yet. You two have to partner with veterans who actually know what they're doing. I'll be joining the fray as well, so you've got Adam, me, Cath or Alex as options. Sorry."  
Kenny sighed. "What do you think, Roseanne?" He mostly just didn't want his brother paired up with her. He didn't think she liked him even still.  
Roseanne didn't, but Kenny ought to know she wasn't one to rock the boat. "Whoever'll take me, I guess." She bit her lip.  
"Come on, then, we'll take this door," Adam said, pointing.  
Kenny sighed, but as much as he didn't like it, he didn't want to cause trouble. He knew his brother was better.  
"I guess I'll go with you, Rakel."  
"That leaves me and you, Catch," Alex said.  
"Alright. You two, here." She handed Kenny and Roseanne a pair of guns. "Pretty basic, even if you've never fired a gun before you should be able to handle those just fine. And everyone take a walkie-talkie. If any group sees Angel, they need to alert the rest of us so we can get out."  
Roseanne took her gun delicately, nervous. Kenny looked uncertain, but he picked his up anyway, and grabbed a walkie talkie. Adam took one as well, and handed another to Roseanne. "Let's go."  
Alex grabbed a pair as well. "We'll take east." He grinned and ran off. He'd picked the farthest doors.  
"Come back here, you!" Catherine ran after him.  
Roseanne nodded and followed after Adam and out the door, holding the weapon loosely by her side in one hand. She let him lead, since he knew what he was doing and she did not.  
"Just try to avoid being seen for now," Adam said, melding into a class with her. The students didn't even notice. Roseanne nodded and did exactly as she was told, avoiding peoples prying eyes.

"Well, guess that leaves us two. Come on, Kenny. This is gonna be fun." Rakel had her own gun and her knife, and she walked out of the room, casually pulling the fire alarm by the door on the way. The ear-splitting bell rang through the whole school.  
Kenny nodded, following after her. "Right." He just hoped Alex and Catherine saw Angel.  
Angel immediately stood up and began heading out with the other students. He may be student body president, but that wouldn't excuse him from burning in a fire.  
Rakel walked out in the crowd. "This class looks like it'll be the one closest to the doors." She said. "We can hide in it until the last of the students come out." Kenny nodded, staying close to her. Then he saw Angel and his mouth went dry.  
Rakel noticed him and rolled her eyes. "Of course." She spoke into the walkie-talkie. "Angel's on my end, you guys are a go." Then she hid it before the boy saw it, watching him with an expression like he was only a mild inconvenience. "I sure hope he doesn't come over here and nag me. He does that a lot."

"Let's go," Adam said, leading Roseanne inside to destroy stuff.  
Roseanne followed of course, but stopped just inside the doors. It was that same feeling again. The one she'd had when she'd tried to throw her food out. It felt... familiar, and yet somehow wrong. It made her feel sick. Repulsed by herself. But it was so familiar at the same time. But she wasn't doing anything she could've done before, was she? Surely she'd never gone and destroyed the inside of a school during a fire drill before, that was pretty specific. "Roseanne, what're you waiting for?" Adam asked, glancing back at her.  
Roseanne jerked out of her trance. "Oh, um, I'm not waiting for anything, just..." She shook her head. No matter what it was bothering her, now was not the time to dwell on it, they were on a time limit. "Sorry. Let's go." She ran up to catch up to him.  
"Good," Adam said, and started in on the English room, destroying all the books and tossing the white board markers out the window. Roseanne flipped over the teachers desk and moved all the students desks into a jumbled disorganized pile in the corner of the room. She also tore the paper on the bulletin boards and left it hanging in obvious strips. "Next room," Adam said. He didn't want to spend too much time in any one room.

Angel looked around, but it appeared to be only for something to do. Then he saw Rakel. He seemed to debate it for a moment, and then he made up his mind to come talk. "What are you doing here, of all places?" He asked.  
"Ugh, speak of the devil, Guess it works on Angels too." She cracked a grin at her own joke as Angel approached her. "What do you mean, 'what am I doing here? There's a fire. Burning doesn't sound pleasant."  
"Well, you're not usually so close to the classrooms," Nikolai said.  
"Well if I can't see the other students, I don't know when it's safe to go back inside." Rakel shrugged. "It's more practical to sit and wait with the NPCs." Nikolai looked like he didn't believe her, but she wasn't causing trouble, so he went to sit and wait for them to be allowed back in. She smirked when he left. "That got him off our backs. Now we just wait until he's not looking and go in." Rakel watched him expertly, waiting for the right gap. She had the air of one who'd done this a billion times.  
Nikolai looked around again, at the other students, the NPCs as Rakel called them. He thought that was rather limiting. They could be interesting people.  
"Now." Rakel grabbed Kenny's arm and walked briskly but casually into the building with him. "Piece of cake," She said when they were both inside.  
Kenny grinned nervously. "Alright, let's do it."

Rakel led him around and they destroyed a few rooms before she started seeing people in the halls. "Oh, looks like our times up. That went surprisingly smoothly. We should head to the office." She giggled. "Let's see how Angel likes this one."

Roseanne deserted the room and repeated the process in the next one. She went through this several times until she saw the NPCs. "Um, Adam?"  
"Looks like we better split," Adam said, heading out.  
"Okay." She followed Adam out, trying to blend in despite her vastly different uniform.  
"Oh don't worry so much, Angel was nowhere around here," Adam said.

Angel crossed Rakel and Kenny in the hall. "What were you doing in here?"  
"Oh, you'll see." She said with the smirk of one who knew she had the upper hand and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it. "Now unless you're going to challenge us in the hallway in front of all these NPCs, I bid you good day. And I don't think you will. I mean, especially not after stabbing Roseanne caused such a commotion. The NPCs do have a memory."  
Nikolai glared at her, but of course she was right. He'd gotten in a lot of trouble over that, and he couldn't take any risks. He hurried back to class, but he hadn't even made it that far before he realized what had been done. Rakel laughed at the NPCs shrieks of surprise and Angel's own expression when he saw what Rakel and her battlefront had done. She led Kenny back to the office in high spirits.


	6. Chapter 7: Practice

"That was pretty awesome," Kenny said as they entered. Adam and Roseanne quickly caught up.  
"It went off perfectly." Rakel agreed. "Oh hey Adam, Roseanne. It go well on your end too?"  
"I think so?" Roseanne shrugged and tried to give the gun back.  
"No, keep it. Practice with that so you hit what you aim at. If you clip this to your belt you can hide it under your shirt." She went through her desk util she found some holsters for the both of them.  
"It went pretty well," Adam said. "Angel didn't give you any problems, did he?"  
Kenny took the holster and clipped it to his belt. He wasn't sure he liked carrying it around, and he thought Roseanne felt the same. "Our school used to have metal detectors, good thing this place doesn't, huh?"  
"He didn't." Rakel responded. "And no kidding, Kenny. We can have other weapons made, but those are usually much more conspicuous so unless you already know how to use them we tend to stick with smaller weapons when not on an operation. Freaks people out less."  
Roseanne nodded. She didn't know of any weapons she might possibly know how to use.  
"Why do you have a knife?" Kenny asked. Surely guns were more useful?  
"Oh, Angel has abilities that block bullets. Hand to hand lasts much longer, but only if you know what you're doing. Since the ones fighting him are mostly a distraction group, bullets are still useful because he either has to use delay, which just makes him really hard to hit, or distortion, which warps bullets around him, but he can't move while using distortion or it breaks so the bullets sere their function anyway."  
"How does he have these abilities anyway?" Kenny asked, frowning.  
"There's a computer in his dorm room which he uses to make them somehow. At least, that's how the previous Angel did it. In fact, most of the abilities are just holdouts from her anyway, so ours may not even know how to make them. Wouldn't that be a relief."  
"Certainly would, especially if the cloning ability got deleted," Adam agreed. "If all we have to worry about is the abilities we've already seen, then it shouldn't be a problem."  
"Yeah. Harmonics isn't the only listed ability we've never seen before, though. Sometimes I wonder why he doesn't use them." She went and sat down at her computer again.  
"What are the others?" Kenny asked, coming over.  
"Well you know the blade on his arm that he uses all the time, for starters? Hand sonic? That's not the only hand sonic he has. He should have multiple of them. Version 2, Version 3, and I think there's a version 4, but I'm not sure. Version 3 is pretty dumb so I can see why he shoses not to use it, but Version 2 sounds practical, so why haven't we ever seen that one?"  
"Maybe he doesn't need it? He might find the first one easier to use," Kenny suggested.  
"I thought of that, but you know how I said the knife always does better than a gun if you know how to use a knife? That wouldn't be the case if he'd just use version 2! If every time I came at him with a knife he switched to version 2, my advantages in combat would severely go down." She shook her head. "At least if the description's accurate. But according to the logs the blade is thinner, specializes in speed, and most importantly, is a great deal longer. That doesn't sound like a big deal, but it keeps e an extra couple steps away from him while I'm fighting, so he could stab me before I could stab him. I'd have to be really good at blocking and I am, but the extra time it'd take to clear that couple steps to try to stab him with a knife like mine, he'd be able to cut off my arm. Or worse." She put her knife on the table. As it was, it was slightly shorter than the hand sonic, but not by much. It was green and most definitely for combat, with large metal guards around the handle like a Sai making it impractical for much else. The entire knife was green, and just above the hilt in the center was a perfectly circular picture of a black rose.  
"So, what, you think he's going easy on us?" Adam asked as his brother looked at the knife.  
"I don't know. That's a possibility, though I can't figure out why he would." She sat down. "He may not know it exists. It has to be a pretty complicated computer program to make the kind of weapons Angel uses. If he had to recreate it from scratch, or just hasn't learned all the features yet, he may not know you can program multiple versions of the same weapon, so he may not know they exist. The other option is that the program wasn't made from scratch by the previous Angel. If there is some sort of disk or program he downloaded, what we've seen may just be what comes on it by default, and everything we haven't was made by the previous Angel and erased when she left."  
"If he doesn't know how to make new stuff, that seems ideal... Though, if it doesn't take someone who knows how to make that stuff, if we got ahold of the program, could we use Angel's skills?" Adam asked.  
"Who knows? He's human just like us, so maybe. Then again, any of us who tried to do what he's doing would get obliterated, so he has to be different somehow, so maybe he's not human."  
"True," Adam noted, frowning. "I wonder."  
"He could be worse, though. I mean, he doesn't bother us when we're not causing trouble. It seems a little weird, doesn't it?" Kenny asked.  
Rakel shrugged. "The previous one was like that too according to the logs, so I've never thought about it."  
"Isn't it weird that it happened twice, too?" Kenny added.  
Rakel shrugged. "I figure Angel is Gods representative here or something. You don't get anywhere by questioning how things are. You get there by adapting and doing."  
"Yeah, I guess that's true, but sometimes understanding can help," Kenny muttered.  
"Maybe sometimes. But most of the time, the search isn't worth it. There's no practical reason to know that information so we don't need to bother with it." She turned to her computer and started looking through the logs for the hundredth time. "You should focus on learning how to shoot that gun."  
"Yeah, yeah. Where should we practice away from NPCs?" Kenny asked.  
"Oh, there's a bridge just nearby. Adam can take you underneath it, it's a good place to set up targets."  
"Alright. Roseanne, wanna come?" Kenny asked, backing towards the door.  
"I should, yeah." Roseanne nodded. She hadn't wanted to interrupt the conversation. She followed Kenny and Adam out, leaving Rakel by herself.

Adam led the way and helped set up some targets. He put them closer than most of the other battle front members would use, since neither of them had ever shot a gun a day in their life, or after life. Adam clenched his jaw at that thought. "Alright, there you go, guys. Just try to hit the target for now."  
Roseanne nodded and stepped up first, pulling her gun out. But she seemed a little unsure. She held it too loosely, and too close to her body. Adam came over and moved her arms. "Try this," he suggested.  
As soon as he grabbed her arm she recoiled back, hitting him on reflex and stepping back two steps. "Don't touch me!" She snapped uncharacteristically harshly. Then her reason caught up with her senses. She blushed scarlet. Where the hell had that come from? She looked mortified. "I'm sorry, I-I..." She really didn't have an explanation.  
Adam grimaced, taking a step back as well after she hit him. He shook his head. "No, it's my fault. You should hold the gun out farther." Even though he said it was his fault, that there was no problem, it was obvious that the blow hadn't caused the most pain. He went to sit on a rock nearby to watch.  
Roseanne felt terrible. She did as he told her and shot at the target, and immediately saw what he was talking about. He was only trying to help, what the hell was wrong with her? She took a couple attempts and then stepped back to let Kenny try. She needed to go properly apologize to Adam, but she wasn't sure what to say. Kenny stepped up as soon as she moved. "He'll be fine, you know," he said as he passed her, and then raised the gun to shoot at the target.  
"I feel like a jerk." She admitted quietly to him.  
"You wouldn't if you had your memories," Kenny said, and took a shot. The recoil almost sent the gun into his forehead, and the bullet went so wide he didn't even see where it hit.  
"Hold your arms straight, you look like you're going to smack yourself in the face." Roseanne told him. She felt even worse. "He was only trying to help..."  
"I _am_ holding my arms straight," Kenny protested, sticking his arms out again. He locked them, and leaned his head back, not wanting to put it anywhere in range again. "Anyway, there are a lot of things he's convinced you he was just doing to help." Though he really had been just now, and that gave Kenny pause. He lowered the gun slightly and glanced at her. "He's really just trying to make up for it all, I guess."  
"Well, I might feel different if I had all my memories, but right now I just feel guilty. He hasn't done anything really wrong that I remember, I have no right to treat him like that."  
Kenny shrugged. "So go apologize," he suggested, raising the gun again. He took aim and shot, missing the target again.

Roseanne took a deep breath. She wasn't sure what she was going to say, but she had to say something. She walked up t where Adam was sitting and sat down next to him. "Adam?" She asked hesitantly, wanting to see if he'd even talk to her.  
Adam glanced up at her. "Yeah?" he asked, quietly.  
Well, that was encouraging. "I'm really sorry about what happened back there, I didn't mean to-" Mean to what? Where did that even come from? It took her a minute to finish her sentence. "-snap at you, I honestly. I don't know where that came from, just... I'm really sorry. I know you were just trying to help."  
Adam shrugged. "Like I said, it's not a problem. I understand, even if you don't. Thanks for apologizing, though," he said.  
"You saying you understand doesn't stop me from feeling guilty." Roseanne smiled. "I'll try to be a little nicer from now on. I really don't know where that came from."  
"You never liked me," Adam said. "I wasn't very likable."  
"That doesn't stop me from being nice."  
"Just trying to help explain things," Adam said, shrugging. "Anyway, I probably should help my brother."  
Kenny was still struggling to hit anywhere near the target. "Probably." Roseanne stood up. "Just... I didn't mean what I said, alright?"  
"Alright, Roseanne. We'll hang out another time to make up for it, huh?" Adam asked, grinning. He headed over to his brother and put him into position. "Try now."  
Kenny clipped the edge of the target, but it was something. "Yeah!" he cried, raising his fist into the air.  
"Yeah! Awesome job Kenny!" Roseanne cheered. "Okay, my turn." Her hands were much more steady and though she clearly didn't like firing, she stood firm.

Soon she too was at least hitting the target, even if it wasn't near the center. Adam continued to give them pointers in an attempt to help their skills along, but nothing he said helped too much. He was rubbish at explaining things. "Anyway," he said, after they'd been at it for several hours, and were almost through all of their ammo, and all of his, "we should probably get back." They'd gotten a chance to learn how to reload the guns, at least. That was useful, though they'd have to collect more ammunition soon.  
Roseanne nodded. "Alright, sounds good." Despite him not being a great teacher, she listened attentively the same as she would in class. She'd become consistent, at least; Her bullets always seemed to end up up and to the left of where she was trying to aim. Kenny had ended up putting his bullets in the other upper corner of the target, but his arms were sore by then, and he was ready to head back. He took the lead. As they entered the office, Adam spoke to Rakel.  
"They're decent, but we're out of bullets."  
"And those were our only spare guns." Rakel sighed. "Looks like we'll have to stop by the guild tomorrow. No big, I'll ask them to shut the traps off tomorrow morning."  
"Lucky kids, getting to see the guild their first week," Adam said, putting an arm around both of them.  
"What's the guild?" Kenny asked.  
"Our weapons building facility." Rakel answered. "As long as you know how the mechanics work, you don't actually need components to make anything in this world. You could make it out of dirt. We've got a small team of kids in a facility way below the school, making weapons, ammunition and gunpowder for us. When we found the place, it was a crater. We rebuilt."  
"A _crater_? What the hell could make it a crater?" Kenny asked, alarmed.  
"The answer's in the logs actually. Angel got down there. They have plenty of lethal traps, but of course since we can't die, those only slowed her down. So they got everyone out and blew the place up so she wouldn't get to it. They did such a through job they completely obliterated the last and second-to-last floors, made a crater. Moved to a place called 'the Old guild' in the logs, but they don't say where the 'old guild' is anywhere, ever, so we've never managed to find it."  
Kenny nodded, frowning. "It's kinda cool, actually, that we have people who know how to build this stuff."  
"I know, right?" Rakel grinned. "I came here knowing the basic components of handguns, so for ages that's all we had to fight with. Then we got more and more kids who were weapons nerds sharing their knowledge and now we can make just about anything we want to fight with."  
"You knew how to make handguns?" Kenny questioned. Obviously someone had to, but it seemed so strange.  
"I knew all the components, yes. You have to take them apart to clean them, after all." Rakel shrugged.  
"Wait, you were using guns while you were alive?" Roseanne asked, flabbergasted.  
Rakel had never shared her past with anyone, but she acted like it was the most normal thing in the world. "Sure. I was handling guns when I was thirteen."  
"Holy sh*t, seriously?" Kenny hadn't thought she'd been _using_ them!  
"Yeah. It still shocks me I'm the only one here who had, honestly."  
Kenny shook his head, but he didn't want to pry anymore. That was completely crazy. "At least we had someone who knew," he reasoned. "So tomorrow we'll go to the Guild, right?"  
"Yeah, operation Parachute. We should probably get some sleep, actually," Adam said, laying back on the couch.  
"Yeah, it's no big deal so long as they actually turn the traps off. It's a right pain in the ass if they forget." Rakel got up from her desk. "I'm gonna go get something to eat. Later."  
"Alright, see you, Rakel," Adam said. She was leaving the brothers alone with Roseanne again.

Rakel went down to the vending machines and bought a can. Why was everyone so shocked? If kids with sh*tty lives ended up here, it was surprising there weren't _more_ gang members. But of course as usual, it was up to her to toughen them up. No one came to her battle hardened already. That was no big deal. She drank her coffee, just thinking.  
"What's wrong with you? It's not as though you needed to wreck the day for everyone else." Angel's eyes flashed, he'd stormed over as soon as he'd seen her. How dare she interfere like that? He hadn't cooled down much through the day, and what little anger he'd lost was rekindled soon enough when he saw her sitting there _drinking coffee.  
_ "Have you met a student like, ever?" Rakel scoffed. "Kids are probably glad to get the day off while the teachers rebuild. Besides, it'll be back to normal in a couple days." What was with Angel today? Why did he keep coming and nagging her? "What's your beef with me specifically, anyway? I'm not the only member of battlefront, in fact I'm the one out here _least_ often. Why are you always nagging me?"  
"You're the one who _started_ this," Angel snapped.  
"Sure I was the first one to pick up a gun and fight back, but newsflash, Angel: Even if somehow I got obliterated right now, we're not going anywhere." She laughed at the thought. "Maybe Cath would lead. Or Alex. Who the hell knows. They're all dedicated enough to stand up and fight, with or without me. Battlefront is a team, and if you honestly think they'd fall apart if I wasn't there to lead them, then go ahead. Try to take me out. Right now" She placed her hand at her hip where her holster was located.  
"Guard skill: hand sonic," Angel said. "They wouldn't be nearly as obstinate."  
Rakel backed up a step, pulling out and loading her gun. "Haha, you have _no_ faith."  
"Oh, and you do?" Nikolai asked, raising his blade.  
"Plenty!" Rakel said with a grin. "Doesn't mean I'm gonna stop fighting any time soon." She fired two well-placed shots at Angels kneecaps.  
Angel tried to move, but ended up grimacing as one made its mark. "Guard skill: distortion." The bullet started pushing out of his knee. He didn't want to have to move until they'd healed, if he could help it, even though it seemed like a waste to use distortion when there was only one shooter there. Especially when that shooter was Rakel.  
Rakel laughed once, and turned to flee. She didn't want to waste bullets on this pointless fight, not when what they had had to last until they got to the guild tomorrow. She fired the occasional shot back at him to discourage him leaving distortion mode, but she knew it'd hardly slow him down. Once his leg healed, he stepped forward, eyes flashing, and raised his hands. "Guard skill: howling." That was when the true extent of his anger became obvious, his eyes flashed and he looked more pissed off than she'd ever seen him, though that wasn't exactly hard. The skill activated just as she fired another shot, so it wasn't going for long. The bullet struck his chest - it wasn't an immediate kill, but the shot was fatal. He doubled over in pain.  
She stopped dead anyway in total and utter shock. _"Howling?"_ She demanded in horror. The second-last log ever written mentioned that ability, but... "If you know that, why haven't you ever-?!" She shut up when she realized the question gave away way more than she wanted him to know. Namely, that she knew his abilities already including the ones he hadn't used before, and knew he hadn't simply just made that one today. She fled back to the office in a panic, even though he couldn't follow. "There is no God... Buddha... or Angel." She gasped the password and threw the door open, running through and slamming it shut behind her. It had been a long time since Rakel had looked panicked like that. She ran to the desk.

"Hey, woah," Adam cried, jumping to his feet as she came in.  
Kenny got up as well, eyes wide. "Rakel? What's wrong?"  
"Angel just demonstrated and ability way newer than Harmonics. One I took for granted was off the table." She was typing furiously.  
"What?" Kenny asked. That meant he had access to Harmonics, unless that ability specifically was deleted. Could they even delete abilities. He could clone himself. A shiver of fear struck him.  
Adam frowned. "What ability?"  
"It's called Howling. The ability itself isn't important. We just put in earplugs when we see him call it and we'll be fine. But I _assumed the previous one would delete it._ She didn't even want it there! And it's the newest move in the logs, so if he knows Howling he definitely knows harmonics and probably all four hand sonic versions, too. So why the _hell_ isn't he _using_ them?!"  
Then a truly terrifying thought struck Kenny. "What if he is using Harmonics, and we just don't know it?"  
Adam scoffed. "If he's using it, and we don't know it, what's he using it for?" he asked, rolling his eyes.  
"To watch us, perhaps." Rakel suggested. "Co-ordinate eyes on the school, never more than one angel in one place at one time, but one angel everywhere. But no, that can't be, the most obviously useful course of action then would be to plant one in hiding by the door and wait to hear the password, he'd have broken in here dozens of times by now and I'm in here most of the time, I'd have seen!"  
Kenny nodded thoughtfully. "Well, there's still the possibility that he doesn't know there are multiple versions of the hand sonic," he said slowly. "And maybe Harmonics has a limiter we don't know about? Like how with distortion he has to stay still?"  
"There's definitely issues with Harmonics, didn't I say that? It's why the first angel only ever used it once. I'm rereading the logs that mention it to see if it gives me any more detail, and then I'm going to find someone who knows how to fight with a sword and duel them until I can beat them with a knife."  
"Well maybe that's why he hasn't used it," Kenny said, nodding.  
Adam smirked. "Don't die too much, Rakel, we might need you if Angel just pulled out a new skill."  
"I'll try. But this fight just got a whole lot tougher."  
"Do you think we'll have to step up our operations to keep up with him?" Adam asked.  
"If he's starting using the full extent of his abilities, then yes. He might not, he was pissed off at me for the operation today and then I went and provoked him. I've been getting too arrogant." She shook her head. "Still, just in case, we're going to teach ourselves how to combat it."  
Adam nodded, and both brothers looked distinctly worried. "We really probably should sleep for tomorrow," Adam said, quietly. Kenny curled up in one of the chairs, but he didn't look like he'd sleep soon.  
"Yeah, like that's going to happen." Rakel hadn't looked up from her work.  
Adam sighed. "Yeah..."  
Still, eventually, everyone but Rakel did get to sleep.


End file.
